Why we shouldn't censor Charlie Hebdo's cartoons

The New York Times got this one wrong

(Image credit: (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images))

I sympathize with the argument made by Dean Baquet, the editor of The New York Times, and others who have chosen not to publish the Charlie Hebdo cartoons cited by the French terrorists as the source of their grievance. These publishers are making a choice not to incite or inflame, they say, by refraining from republishing images that Muslims consider to be highly offensive. But this is the wrong choice.

I don't think they're cowards — far from it. I just think they're wrong.

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Marc Ambinder

Marc Ambinder is TheWeek.com's editor-at-large. He is the author, with D.B. Grady, of The Command and Deep State: Inside the Government Secrecy Industry. Marc is also a contributing editor for The Atlantic and GQ. Formerly, he served as White House correspondent for National Journal, chief political consultant for CBS News, and politics editor at The Atlantic. Marc is a 2001 graduate of Harvard. He is married to Michael Park, a corporate strategy consultant, and lives in Los Angeles.